


Orange Like the Sun

by Lyrigol



Series: Fora [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Gift Fic, Gift Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-06-06 21:08:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6769969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrigol/pseuds/Lyrigol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The origins of Lady Hux.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Orange-Red

**Author's Note:**

  * For [5ofSpades](https://archiveofourown.org/users/5ofSpades/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Industrious and Strong in Work](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6258688) by [5ofSpades](https://archiveofourown.org/users/5ofSpades/pseuds/5ofSpades). 



> If you do not read 5ofSpades's fanfic that first, nothing in this one will make sense.

They called her cub when she was young.

“Cub,” they would call as they nudged her towards the trees, watching as she climbed up with ease despite how her hands were adorned with the fleshy digits of a human’s.

“Cub,” they would call, eyes crinkling with wide, teeth-filled smiles when she first shed her human form. 

“Cub,” they called, arms open wide to catch the little orange cat, when the first ships appeared. Her sire plucked him from his tree and carry her far away, while the rest stayed behind, crowding around the strangers that climbed out of the ship.

“Cub,” he said when the two of them were hidden away in their home, “we are special. Different from the others. We all have two forms, but they? They have one. Outsiders cannot learn of our greatest secret.” He smoothed an errant curly lock of hair back into place, “The body you are wearing isn’t as important, all they need to see is either an animal or a human. Not both.”

“Stay human when in the village, or hide in the forest,” he begged.

And so she did. The outsiders never stayed for long, and those who see more than they should end up like the small creatures that crossed her path. Torn apart and covered in flies, all to make sure that Fora’s greatest secret will not pass on from this planet. She knew what her sire did as soon as he came home to tuck her in for the night. There was no sign of blood, but the smell lingered. She grew to love that smell, the mixed scent of blood and fear, one that any creature can give off. 

Time flew by and those early, blissful days passed as well. No longer did she shift into him — bright orange and lithe — and spend each day in the forest, biting the head off whatever small creature crossed his path. Her sire and his siblings stopped calling her cub, instead changing their calls to Sienna. They bid her to stay as a human, for she was to go to school, a great opportunity especially since it was so much better than Fora’s schools. She went with hopes that school would turn out to be a greater playground, for the forest was no longer as entertaining as it once was. There were only so many places a small cub could go.

When she settled down in the hard chair in a colorless, cold room, her instructors introduced themselves. She couldn’t help noting that they smelled of steel, while the Fora students smelled of the forest. A conflict between an empty scent and one filled with life, one that she later reflects upon as rather appropriate.

It was only the presence of her playmates that made school bearable, for the instructors seemed blind to almost anything of importance. They spoke not of how to live, but of the lives of the dead, the dead who the outsiders seemed to worship to an unhealthy degree. Words like legacy, Empire, and glory fell from their lips with the same reverence one would use to speak to the Lord of the Forest. The outsider’s history was thrust upon Sienna, hammering down on the other students and leaving them uncomfortable and irritated. 

Sienna grew to look down on the instructors, for all they did was speak of greatness. They called themselves noble for bringing education to these backwater planets, all the while ignorantly blundering through every comment they had about Fora, never seeing what the students were up to while they yammered in front of the class. 

She would scoff and sneer at their dull senses with her cousins. Their sires and dams were not simple fruit merchants barely surviving year to year because they didn’t know how to balance a budget. She’s heard her family tell enough harrowing tales of space battles to know that they did more than trading. 

The evenings passed by with Sienna and her cousins complaining the moment they got out of school. In class Sienna started up some conflicts between the instructors and the students. The only instructor that caught on was the Basics language teacher, their many eyelids fluttering in disapproval. Sienna ignored them and continued with her prodding. It was in her language class where she started her first fight. 

Her cousins picked up on her plan by the next day, and she met with them in private to make them promise that they would work together as a family. One person’s goal was everyone’s goal. 

So the instructors started to find many of their data pads damaged, screens shattered and sparking. The more condescending ones lost some personal items. Most of the items they stole was relatively innocent, but for the few unfortunates their item was on display at the front of the school, dangling from the ceiling for all the students to shriek and point at. 

After that, the head of the school started to crack down on rule enforcement. Many of her cousins were pulled outside during class. They were the same students who were made to sit in a room to quietly reflect upon their action. Any squirming was punished with a stick.

Sienna immediately organized an uprising. 

The day the outsiders tried to turn us into some sort of lower race was the day they’ll be leaving. She screamed to her fellow comrades as they tore through the rooms, trampling over the cowering human in the corner. 

When other staff members tried to intervene, the mob of students — having swelled to include the older and younger students — fell upon the hapless staff. When Sienna scampered home hours before the end of school, she nursed many wounds, but many more instructors were bitten so it was alright.

Within the week after their impromptu uprising there was no trace of the school. Their parents lamented that such of an opportunity has been lost, yet none seemed eager to apologize either. The comments about them being Outer Rim scavengers must have stung their pride.

This time, Sienna appreciated the forest, its vivid colors holding the promise of adventure once more. This time she wasn’t as alone as before, as some of her younger cousins started to follow her around. She like many others, shed their human forms as often as they could. Switching out human skin for fur and scales, grinning flat teeth for fangs.The lingering smell of sterile air that clung to their clothes gave way to the sweet, earthy smells of the forest. 

But no matter how long he stayed in feline form, Sienna never really left, lurking in the corners of his mind. When he laid by his sire’s side tucked under her limb, fighting off an insistent grooming tongue, he asked for advice. 

He would never forget how she stopped her grooming to think, of how the filtered sunlight caused her reddish fur to glow like embers in the fire pit. When she looked back at him she told him at the very least to keep Sienna around as a mask, for outsiders. 

His sire purred to him low and gentle, telling him to not hate Sienna, for he was a shapeshifter, both human and beast. Her tongue rasped over the top of his head, reassuring and determined. You will always be my child, and I your sire, she told him, letting the warmth of the words settle into him before nudging him home.

That night, a freighter crash lands deep in the forest. The entire village stirred at the sound, the adults racing out after an alarm sounded, melting into the forest. Her sire was one of them, leaping and bounding into the darkness. 

Sienna followed as well, soft feet shrinking to hardened paws. He followed the wounded cries of the forest, crawling under broken branches and darting down the blackened scar that the shuttle left behind. The screams lead him to the impact site. He hid under the bushes, watching as one of his sire’s sister crushed an outsider. It wasn’t long before the heavy scent of blood flooded the clearing, soaking into the earth. 

He tried to keep an eye out for a flash of red fur, but whenever he turned to look, the brilliant red of his sire’s fur was nowhere to be found.

One of the outsider was shoved into the bush he was hidden under, causing him to leap right into the open freighter, mouth curled up into a snarl, fur puffed up in an attempt to look larger. A pitiful sight if anyone was watching — he was far from the intimidating size of his family. Luckily, the outsiders were too busy with the massive beasts tearing at their flesh. No one outside noticed the ginger cub vanishing into the darkness of the shuttle. 

He slunk down the halls, sticking close to the walls of the shuttle. The entire structure seemed dead, not even the humming of a running engine to soften the sound of his claws clicking on the smooth metal floor. Only the faint sounds of a battle outside hid his approach. He stopped, unnerved at the quietness. 

Even at school there was always someone else breathing or the teacher talking. Here, there was only him and the battle outside. He pressed against the cold floor, struck with a bone deep terror, his throat twisted shut. Panting did nothing to calm him, his throat sealed shut. Each wheezing breath only brought the scent of burned machinery. 

Something moved in the shadows, just around the corner. He was on his feet and crawling forward in a heartbeat. The shot flew over him, sending sparks raining down the dark halls and upon his coat. 

For once his small size favored him as he dashed forth, fur bristling as he leapt onto the shocked Twi’lek. He bit wildly, teeth ripping through the stiff cloth and into the leg. He savored the warmth flooding his mouth before he pulled back, flesh tearing off, causing the Twi’lek to crumple against the floor, screaming and kicking her leg, knocking him off. She clutched at the wound, blaster loosely gripped in one hand. Distracted. 

He sank his teeth into her lekku, biting it off. 

This time she twisted around, firing shots over her shoulders. 

He went for her neck. 

Blood soaked into his face, cooling rapidly and dripping onto the floor. He sat by watching her desperate attempts to stop the blood. The Twi’lek took her last, sputtering breaths in a downed shuttle with a small blood soaked cat. Satisfaction curled inside him, warming him with pride. 

The freighter shifted underneath his feet, and he turned tail and ran, paws coated in blood slicking up the metal floor. 

He ran into his sire, her ears flattened and teeth bared, growling at the darkness. Sienna threw himself towards her, and she immediately snatched him up before bounding away. For the first time in a long time, he didn’t fuss about being treated like a cub.

Later Sienna would learn of a freighter crash. It was fortunate that the ship was filled with criminals and smugglers. It’s just a pity that the locals did not get there in time to stop the forest scavengers from wreaking havoc upon the bodies. If there were any survivors, they surely perished in the forest. It was, perhaps, one of the most tragic events that have occurred on Fora. With the tiny planet attracting such attention of the Outer Rim, her sire received less and less business each passing week, until the two of them were living of what he had saved over the years.

The adults would bunch up together, leaving her to keep an eye on the cubs frolicking at the edge of the forest. The chirping cries of the cubs almost masked the sound of murmuring and the occasional snarl from her aunts. She was not paired up with anyone else, for there was almost no need for a sentry for the cubs and another for outsiders. The task was delegated to her and her alone, so she sat there imagining her thin human skin burning under the sunlight. Some of the cubs broke off from the group, darting towards her and nipping at her ankles and darting out of her reach. They must have been working up their courage for a while. 

She obliged them when she leapt out of the chair, shifting as she flew through the air. He landed with a hiss, back arched while his tail was raised playfully. The cubs crowded around him, delighted by his trick. Sienna spent the rest of the morning chasing the cubs around until the heat of the afternoon caused them to scamper to the shady porch, dozing the hottest hours of the day away.

Sienna slipped back into her house, hoping to find the heady aroma of lunch in the air, only to run into her sire snatching clothes out of the closet and shoving them into the only travel bag they own.

“Sire,” she said, fists clenched at her side, neatly trimmed nails digging into her palms, “where are you going? Why are you leaving?”

He had stopped when she entered the room, fingers stilling over the shirt he grabbed. “Sienna,” he said dropping the shirt as he twisted around and kneeled on the floor. He pulled her close to him, tucking his face over her shoulder. “You must have heard us talking, about how our trading company is falling apart.” She nodded, prompting him to go on. “We are in dire straits. I need to go find your dam.”

“My dam? I thought she was dead.”

“No, she is alive and well. It’s just,” he stopped visibly collecting himself, “she’s been off, looking for more of us.” 

Sienna tightened her hold on him. While she herself never really dwelled on her dam, her sire did, and never with any joy. He had explained to her once, “I miss her, your dam. She made the world brighter.” 

With that, her sire left with some of her aunts and uncles that evening, leaving behind the old and the tired, the young and the weak. As the days went on, Sienna vanished for longer and longer periods of time into the forest, coming back with claws dull from climbing trees and teeth stained with blood. The elders only clucked at Sienna for being so wasteful, chasing after creatures without the intent to eat. She shrugged them all off before fleeing back into her house. Some days, instead of going into the forest she stayed in the village, passing time with the cubs. She would entertain them with stories of her school days.

In the quiet of the night Sienna would curl up in his sire’s room, waiting for sleep to claim him. During those periods between wakefulness and sleep, Sienna came to the decision that his dam will not be ignored. He will learn from his dam, like he did from his sire. A life outside of Fora was something he had never heard of, and it would be easy to approach her like of the other village people. A stranger from Fora.

When word came that her sire was on his way back, Sienna shed her human form. The world was simpler when he could frolic around with the cubs, pretending to be the Lord of the Forest. Even as the cubs attacked as one, Sienna always ended up on top. They were all distracted, their ears perked to the hum of a ship. Still not an excuse for seven of them to continually fail to pin him down. Sienna nipped at the tail of one of his cousins, dancing away from the flurry of swiping claws. The game went on until he heard a rumble. His ears were pricked upwards, the first among the children to pick up the sounds of a shuttle landing nearby. 

He tumbled out of the pile of fur and limbs, sprinting ahead of them on his way down to the landing docks, hoping to catch the familiar scent of her sire. But the first person to walk about of the shuttle was not anyone he knew. The cubs crashed into him, shoving him forward and causing them to start yowling in displeasure. He flicked back his ears, annoyed and hoping to muffle their cries. 

That was when he was snatched up from the ground by a pair to strong hands, causing him to let out his own yowl of protest, twisting around in an attempt to bite at the hands. The woman merely scratched behind his ears and smoothing his puffed fur down with strong, smooth strokes. When his sire appeared behind the stranger and wrapped his arms around her, Sienna stopped wriggling around, looking up to better to see his dam.

The woman held no resemblance to him, her hair was a dark brown, her eyes darker still. Perhaps the only thing Sienna got from his dam was her curly hair and dark skin, for Sienna’s hair and fur was still the vibrant red of his sire.

It took months before Sienna became close with her dam, a year before Sienna noticed more and more similarities the two of them shared. Tales of an unknown world let the two of them bond, Sienna’s dam finally doing what the school couldn’t. Every moment the three of them spent together made her sire happier and happier, for his one dream of having a whole family has become reality. During that time, Sienna watched as the family business started making a profit again, the Outer Rim forgetting about the freighter scandal, eyes fixed on the Empire’s newest construction.

With the influx of new trade, the stream of outsiders returned, this time Sienna was old enough to draw the looks of each outsider that passes by. Looks that caused her to retreat to the forest out of irritation, spending more time with his dam, who has pretty much spent the past few years in feline form as if he could make up for the suffering his animal form has gone through during the years of neglect. The time spent with his dam allowed them to go through their shared interest. Hunting. His dam possessed a streak of sadistic viciousness that made hunting with him far more entertaining, no scolding from his sire for playing with his food.

It was on one of their hunting trips that he asked his dam a question. A simple one, about who his future mate will be. His dam stopped cleaning himself, letting the fleck of blood dry on his muzzle as he considered Sienna’s question. 

“Preferably an outsider. It will be a great adventure, as long as you make sure they can’t leave.” His dam returned to his grooming, letting the time pass by as the two of them cleaned the blood off of themselves. The heady scent of death filled the clearing as their prey laid broken against the emerald foliage, spilling its scarlet blood onto the forest carpet, feeding its hungry roots. 

Later, when his sire joined them in their feast, Sienna asked her the same question. She immediately disagreed, saying that marriage to an outsider will end up in more trouble than it’s worth.

“Your mate must be someone who can match you,” his sire declared before plunging back into the stomach of the deer.

Sienna just sat back, considering what his parents said. His childhood on Fora was filled with fond memories, but while his sire seemed to believe that Sienna would follow in the family business, her dam seemed more down to earth, understanding that Sienna was counting the days before he could leave to explore the world. It didn’t matter where his mate came from, he decided, as long as the two of them could get along. His sire’s point about an equal match will also be something that Sienna will consider.

It wasn’t long before Sienna was able to determine that there were no one around her age on Fora who met those requirements. They were rather low requirements, and the fact that Sienna would have to look towards outsiders for potential mates dampened her enthusiasm. She spent a week sulking in her room, and when she emerged she was confronted with the gossip that has been buzzing around the village for ages. Her aunts and uncles sent Sienna out into the forest to fetch her sire and dam, and to inform the Lord of the Forest. The Empire was coming.

The Lord of the Forest was an old cat, one whose human form Sienna had never seen. The Lord sat in the hollow of the oldest tree in Fora, watching his with silver eyes that loomed out of the shadows, listening. When Sienna finished, the Lord declared that they would all stay as humans while the Empire resides in Fora. Sienna groveled and left, calling out to his parents and spreading the message. No one asked if the Lord will join them. His role was to protect the forest. How could he do that if he was busy playing a human? 

Preparations were made, and when the Empire’s ships blotted out the sun, they were ready. The welcoming party at the docks sickened her, so she fled into the forest. It was an unfamiliar place, for Sienna stood taller in her human form. The tall stumps that he slept upon barely reached her knees when she was a human. The forest grew smaller, and during the early days of their occupation, Sienna explored the forest, uninterested in watching the soldiers. 

She became near desperate in her attempts at avoiding the Empire’s troops. When they went into the forest to hunt (pitiful attempts at hunting her dam reassured her) she fled to the beach, and would hide herself behind some jagged boulders and sun herself all day. Her skin blackened under the sun and flaked off. Her parents scolded her at the end of the day as they scrubbed away her peeling skin. She ignored their warnings and went back to the beach, this time choosing a more sheltered location to relax. She even waded into the water to chase the bright purple crabs.

Sienna only noticed him when she was getting ready to leave. Aside from her, nobody was at the beach for the past two days, so seeing a dark blot against the setting sun. She crept up behind him with the intent to make him scream when he finally turned around. When his figure became clearer, Sienna couldn’t stop obsessing over how thin he was, how fragile his pale skin looked. She admired the way the sunlight filtered through his orange hair, making it look like it was on fire. Sienna though he looked rather like a porcelain doll in an uniform.

She touched his shoulders, just a light brush, and made sure to use her lightest laugh when he flinched.

They chattered aimlessly, the kind of conversation only used to get a read on someone else. The boy introduced himself as Lieutenant Hux, puffing up like a bird with pride. Sienna only smiled at his announcement, replying that she was the sole heir to the Wild Space Trading Guild. Their conversation only stopped when she noticed how he was starting to shiver when wind started blowing hard. She offered to walk him back, letting triumph to sink into her bones when he agreed.

From then on, she made sure that she interacted with him as much as possible, bringing him some of the best fruits, little trinkets, and harrowing tales of the forest. He always accepted her gifts, a bemused look on his face, made the right noises during her tale. A perfect set of manners to go along with his straight back and pressed uniforms. It amused Sienna. But being interesting too look at or amusing wasn’t going to fill all of Sienna’s requirements. After she walked him to the shuttle one night, she slipped behind the nearby shop, shifting into him. He heard his joints pop as he stretched. It had been a while after all, and what Sienna is planning on doing isn’t going to be easy on the body. 

Sienna didn’t face any issues walking into the shuttle, for the outsiders left it wide open. Inside was the metal scent of a clean shuttle, and the lingering human stench. He breathed deeply, picking out Hux’s scent after a while. It lead him deeper and deeper into the yawning mass. Perhaps, if he was larger it wouldn’t seem as intimidating, but he has yet to reach the massive size of his parents yet. Sometimes he wondered if he ever would.

He crept past several hallways before Hux’s scent grew stronger. There was a heavy taste in the stale air, completely unappealing, but when Sienna rounded the corner he came to realize that the smell was their meal. And this must be where Hux ate his food. A disgusting place, but empty, which was all Sienna really needed. Hux himself had his back facing the opening, feet propped up thanks to how narrow the space was, making him hutch his lanky form over his food, mindlessly picking at it. Sienna slid right underneath his feet, teeth carefully poised over the slip of flesh visible underneath the close cut pants. Sienna gave Hux a small gentle nip.

The foot was yanked away from his mouth, the heel of the boot knocking against his head and dragging him with it in its retreat. Hux’s scowling face came into view, his face scrunching up in disgust. After five minutes of running around the shuttle’s kitchen, dodging the handy broom nearby, Sienna managed to escape out into the hallway, bolting towards freedom. It was insulting to be chased away like a mere pest, but at the very least Hux was competent with dealing with the issue. That’s all Sienna really asks for in the end.

She crawled into bed that night, plans for a marriage contract drifting through her mind as she fell asleep. By the following afternoon, her first draft had been typed up on the one data pad her sire keeps around. When it was passed over for Hux to read he accepted within moments of the pad touching his hands. Any less would be insulting, especially since Sienna has undergone such trouble to come up with it.

“I hope you aren’t expecting anything more than a marriage of convenience,” he said as the two of them lounged around on the beach. 

“Poor Lieutenant Hux,” she cooed in response, “so blind to my unladylike use of you. You are my ticket off of Fora, and a companion that I can whisper snide comments to.”

Hux had pushed to have the ceremony as soon as possible, without much trappings. Sienna hadn’t much cared, for she had already imparted the news of her marriage the previous evening. Practically everyone knew and she wasn’t particularly interested in the asinine tradition humans adored so much. A quick snarky comment was all it took for him to just sign some papers. It was then submitted for approval — which, according to regulations, should take no longer than three days. A red stamp over the crisp paper and black ink, and their marriage was official. 

Then Sienna sat Hux down with her parents, sparking a furious debate over what will happen to the Wild Space Trading Guild. When the moon was already up high, her dam napping in the kitchen chair, a deal was struck. Her sire will begin to ferry more than just fruits around the Outer Rim now.

Their honeymoon was simply Hux showing her around his home planet, a dull, dreary world. She commented on the lack of color once, and he laughed, explaining that this was what much of the other planets looked like. 

“Fora,” he said, showing her the bedroom, “is the land of bright colors and fever dreams.”

Sienna had only watched, fascination dripping from her every pore. To see her mate move around in his gilded cage, his sharp angles fitting in here. Dressed for once not in a uniform, but a delicate piece of cloth meant to show off his wealth. Ever since they had returned to Arkanis and he has stepped out of his uniform, Sienna noticed how she was just taller, larger than him. Not due to how much larger her bone structure, instead, due to the sheer amount of muscle Sienna had managed to pack onto her bones. She found it utterly enchanting.

“Hope you don’t mean that I am part of it,” she teased as she started poking around the window, noting how the eternal fog meant that she will likely not see this system’s star in full force.

“Sienna, you are a gem.”

“Now see what you society has turned me into,” she cried in mock horror, “a useless lump of minerals.”

He had laughed at that, beckoning her to follow him. She fell in step behind him, imagining how she was, in a sense, stalking her prey. 

She only spent a week in the comfort of their home before the near constant celebration the citizens of Arkanis caught up to them. Hux, who now insisted that she called him Brendol, warned her of how the people he grew up with fought different from her. 

Later at her first ball, she understood what he was saying. The near constant murmur that trickled out of their mouth must have dulled their senses over the ages, for she could hear their poison quite clearly. It wasn’t even them trying to have her notice them, they just never spoke quietly, trusting that there will be another, more interesting conversation ongoing near them, to cloak the sharp glint of their words. Or perhaps, it is her heightened senses that allows her to catch every comment they make about her. Savage, exotic, stupid girl. Sienna only held her head higher and smiled wider, her teeth near glowing under the fancy lights.

Every now and then she’ll hear an insult aimed towards Brendol. Blundering fool, ignorant brute. Sienna hid her laughter in the finger foods that were being served by the droids, slipping away from gaudy flashing gems of creatures. They knew nothing of bruteness, for if they did it would be clear that Hux was delicate. He tries so hard to posture and puff up to hide his fragile bones. Maybe it actually works on these fools, but Sienna knows. 

When they made it back to the comforts of their home, she turned to Hux and told him that she never wanted to sit through a stuffy social gathering ever again. The pitying expression that graced his face was enough to send her blood boiling. That night she dreamt of tearing out the throats of all the humans who looked down at her and sneered.

But Sienna is nothing but resilient, and when the next creamy, gold lined invitation arrived for a dinner celebrating the Empire she pulled out her dress and slipped into it again. Sienna passed the night with fantasies of watching blood trickle down the sparkling gems and pooling on the shining floor, but when it’s morning again she thinks of other, more imporant things. Such as, how will Sienna reveal her greatest secret. It has to come out someday, and she would rather not have it because their child shifts as a young child. Better to get it over with sooner than later, that was what her dam told her once. Sienn suspects that it was about her human birth, but it is a useful ideal to keep around.

Sienna passes the time in the speeder, thinking of what Hux will do when he learns of Sienna’s other shape. He could sit there and let the horror seep deep down into his bones, making them tremble like the dead branches of a tree during a storm. Of how he will react once he knows he married a monster for life. How would such of a secret would drag down his soul, break his fragile mind? When he isn’t allowed to alleviate the weight by passing the secret on to others, for it is his burden alone. Sienna grins, her fantasies painting a vivid image of an entertaining future. She has always like playing with her food more than she like eating it.

It wasn’t until they reached the party that she came to learn that Brendol Hux has some hidden claws of his own. When he overheard some of the nastier comments sent her way — good for nothing whore — he swept by, cutting them down with his sharp tongue. Sienna sat back and watched, swirling her drink absently as she enjoyed the outsider’s bloodless fights. Doesn’t get her heart pumping like the ones at home did, but it was still great to watch the weakling slink away, metaphorical tail puffed up in terror. Sienna chose a good mate.

Hux deserved to know the truth. He may be a glass figurine, but he was tough, hard to break. Always bouncing off the floor for some inexplicable reason, never shattering, never chipping. Ice cold perfection.

With the burning taste of alcohol on her tongue she thanked him, holding her hand out for a dance, her twirls fast enough to cause Hux to stumble a bit. Nothing here, nothing ever here. These humans deserve to know nothing. She sneered at the mass of blurring flesh. She’ll tell him later, in the privacy of her own house, where no one will hear his screams. No matter what he does, Hux cannot leave, for her kind mated for life and his kind chained themselves down with promises.

She passed a couple of days, dithering over when and how to tell him. She even made one of her rare communications home to her parents, asking them for advice. Sometime during all of those hours she started to daydream of hunting, sinking Sienna’s teeth deep into an unsuspecting flank. To act on such dreams would be a completely different story, and the aftermath would not be in her favor, so she held off. She contented herself with admiring how Hux was soft where she was hard, and hard where she was soft. In the privacy of her mind, she could admit that it wouldn’t have been fair for Hux to live on Fora during the height of his life, for he would just wither underneath the demands of such of a strenuous life.

Life on Arkanis was not unbearable, merely difficult when it needn’t be. She discovers the meager forest one day, when she was out on her stroll. A forest that she can wander off into, where she can shed fancy dresses for a long coat of fur. 

Hux grew used to her frequent “walks”. When she started vanishing for long and longer, he grew more quiet, drawing inwards. She should have realized that he was getting suspicious. Her carelessness let her secret slip from her hand like sand. Nothing she says will fool him, for he saw with his own eyes how his beautiful wife transformed into the same cat that bit him.

For the first time, Sienna learned what it was like to have her husband’s wrath turned against her. 

Glorious.

Sienna had her greatest opponent, and Hux had his. They danced around one another, darting forward with the small prick of an insult, jumping back when the other responded. Hux bought her frilly, silk dresses and jewelry, and she left dead forest creatures on his pillow.

They came to a truce a week after. Brendol Hux agreed to teach her how to act like Lady Hux and Sienna promised to tell him of her heritage.

They swapped stories and ideals during the spare time they did not spent at any social gatherings, both of the gaining a newfound respect for one another. As they spend more time talking with one another about their culture, their opinion ultimately found their way in as well. A floodgate had been open, letting her pour out her ideas, her inner thoughts that few have ever heard before if any. The same happened to him, the wall of ignorance between their two worlds crumbling a bit with each new information they feed one another.

There would still be days when the forest vermin population dropped, but as time went on, this happened less and less.

Publicly, Lady Hux had finally picked up the requirements of living a civilized life, mostly thanks to her husband’s hard work at finding a trainer to whip his wild wife into shape. Lieutenant — soon to be Commandant — Hux has only grown colder, the rebels smothering the spark of joy from his marriage, growing cold to everyone around him. He became the ultimate military man, talked about behind closed doors and in hushed whispers. This by no means meant that Lady Hux was forgotten. She was still a favorite subject of the gossip mill, even if it did have to churn harder to find her mistakes, minor ones that everyone made, worsened by how she was a savage.

Those whispers stopped when Sienna’s sire came to dominate Arkanis’s shipping market, edging out the competition. Behind the scenes, Hux and her sire struck up a deal where her sire would ferry the young, promising children of Arkanis to the Outer Rim for their education. The constant brook of rumors died down to a trickle. 

Sienna celebrated with her husband in bed that night, coming to a rest with the sheets in a tangle around their sated bodies.

Over the next nine months, Sienna’s regrets grew exponentially once her stomach started swelling. The only shred of comfort she could take was when Hux outright doted over her, fulfilling her every need at a moment’s notice. The angry outbursts might have made him nervous about his child’s well being. Sienna tried to feel some guilt behind making him that nervous, but her anger needed an outlet.

She gave birth in a medbay, a tiring process that she promptly told Hux that she never wanted to undergo again. He showed her their child, a thin layer of orange hair scattered across his pale skin. Not much of a surprise here. 

He was swaddled in layers of cloth, and when she looked into his eyes, she saw the same green as hers staring back. A sense of contentment settled in her, the kind of relaxation she hasn’t experienced ever since she left Fora. While before this she had nothing from her home, nothing that really captured its spirit, the small creature in her arms was what her secret luggage was. A piece of Fora smuggled out into the outside world.

Sienna cooed and laughed when her straying finger went into his mouth, his jaw moving ineffectively to nip at her. When no one else was around, she called him cub.


	2. Psychedelic Colors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Normally, when there is a rare attempt at Brendol Hux’s life, it usually occurs from a distance, in an impersonalized manner. Meaning that no one has ever tried to kill him in close combat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally got around to editing this chapter, but it's much shorter than the first one.

He wasn’t expecting this today.

Normally, when there is a rare attempt at Brendol Hux’s life, it usually occurs from a distance, in an impersonalized manner. Meaning that no one has ever tried to kill him in close combat, mainly because he tries to avoid it. This, he decides, was a special exception. It really wasn’t an assassination attempt, for if he was to be assassinated it would imply that his existence is inconvenient to someone. Only part of that is true, but it really wasn’t his existence. When the alarm went off, Brendol managed to seal off the cockpit. Using an override function and not by accident. 

Endangering his own life wasn’t a practice he engaged in often, but if the pilot goes down then so does everything else. This doesn’t really count as recklessly endangering his life, so he’ll let himself off the hook. As he ducks into a small hallway he tries to relax, for he wasn’t going to be shot on sight, not if the pirates want to get this ship. 

His pragmatic mind tells him that if a stray pirate was to find him, this time, there will be no convenient override function he can trigger to somehow hide himself. He made do with the small space in between some of the command consoles. His light breathing was hidden underneath the hum of the generator. The sound of metal striking metal echo down the hall, and Brendol could pinpoint the moment the pirate rounded the corner. He presses against one of the consoles, leaning right into the vibrating sheets of metal containing the ship’s engine. A shudder ran down his spine as he realizes how risky his hiding location has become. As the footsteps drew closer, Brendol shuts his eyes, and holds his breath. People don’t usually look down, and his hiding spot was as well covered as it could be.

No such luck. The gun was pointed right at his face.

“Get up.”

He slowly came out of his kneeling position, knees protesting, tilting his head up in order to look at the helmeted face. It was an ugly design, resembling a bug more than anything. He let a sneer cross his face.

The pirate spoke with a faint buzzing accent, “Open the doors and stop sneering. You know the consequences.” At least now Brendol knew why the pirate would choose such of an ugly mask. Its actual face might be even more unpleasant to look at.

He stood up, leaving his back pressed against the was as he glares at the bug-man, mouth opening to shoot out a derisive comment. There was a low snarling and the distinctive sound of metal striking metal before his vision whited out as pain pulsed through his body. When his eyesight cleared he curses. He grunts pushing the metal off of him. Right about then was when he noticed that Sienna was busy crushing the bug pirate, if the blurry orange shape and the dull brown shape was indeed the two. As he lies there on the floor, wheezing for his breath, he was once again, astonished by how much Sienna can do. If he was honest with himself, Sienna’s strength still confused him.

Sure, it could be partially due to Sienna’s cat side, but Brendol finds it difficult to believe that a feline the size of a mundane house cat could house such strength. Sienna can insist all she wants, but Brendol didn’t believe that she’ll be getting any larger anytime soon.

Until now, that is. For his vision finally allowed him to see more than blurs and it is apparent that his wife wasn’t the size of a house cat anymore. And now that he’s looking around, the metal sheet was actually a cleverly hidden storage door — the entrance to a space large enough to fit him inside.

The sound of a console screen shattering apart drew him out of his shocked gaping. Another blaster shot flies past, missing everyone and only leaving a black smudge against the roof of the shuttle. Brendol finds himself crawling into the hole to hide. Once he settles in, he returns to listen to the fight once more, his stomach clenching around nothing as the sounds of blaster shots flew forth. It was only the consistent snarling that reassured him that Sienna was still in the fight. At the sound of something hitting the door, Brendol stuck his head out to survey the results of fight.

The large orange cat had the pirate pinned down under its new, massive weight. The bug helmet was in his mouth, teeth nicking and cracking the material like a nut. As soon as Sienna found enough purchase, he ripped the head right off, sending a spray of blue blood everywhere. That at the very least manages to allow Brendol to confirm that the pirate wasn’t a human. Now that his beloved wife was done with it, he has all of a suddenly lost interest in trying to identify the pirate.

The most horrifying part was when Sienna approached him for head pats and nuzzling. Sienna can laugh at him all she wants for fleeing out of that room, but Brendol was not about to deal with blood stains right after being traumatized by a pirate attack.

~

She was busy washing the blood out of her hair when he finds her again.

“Dear,” he began, the picture of calmness, “why were you even there to save me in the first place.”

She stopped her furious scrubbing to look at him properly, a deadpan look plastered onto her face. She lets the silence draw out for a couple of moments before saying, “Well, in case you didn’t notice, there was a blaring alarm going off when the ship was breached.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you were there.”

She lets out a long suffering sigh, “Ugh, fine. If you really must know.” She wrung out her hair as she drew herself to her full height. To Brendol’s chagrin it seems that she has grown a couple of inches taller, putting her at a whopping five standard units above him. “It’s because as the daughter of the person who pays everyone, I cannot come to harm on this ship. Sooo some random worker shoved me into the alcove, alright? Besides if the generator was attacked we would have all gone down anyways.”

“No escape pods?”

“The first thing the pirate destroyed.”

Brendol shuffled around a bit, uncertain of how to breach the topic about his wife becoming an even larger cat. Sienna must have noticed that, for she bared her teeth at him, licking them and allowing her mouth to curl up in amusement.

“Don’t question what happened,” she advises before turning back to the blue water and resuming her grooming session.

His expectations of a psychedelic colored planet filled with house cats was dashed into smithereens. Much like his life, during the few times he allows himself to reflect upon how he married a cat.

~

Same as the last time he visited Fora, the villagers who greet him were in their human forms, not making the slightest indication of how they were all furry inside. Actually, he doesn’t really want to consider the logistics of how they are able to turn from an animal to a human or what they really were. Trying to figure out how it was possible for Sienna to do all of that shape changing was headache inducing, and Brendol is determined to enjoy his brief stay.

Instead, he focuses on shaking the hands of the tens of relatives somehow all related to Sienna. She had wandered off in search for her sire, as she calls him. This Brendol can wrap his mind around, for when your sex switches between animal and human forms titles such as father and mother, which are gender specific, doesn’t really work out. A simple answer to something that he shouldn’t have spent so much time on, but it was one of the few parts of Sienna’s culture he has a grip on.

So of course Sienna comes by to kick at his grip on that understanding. It starts off innocently enough.

“Meet my younger siblings,” she says, dragging behind her a chain of small children. “They were born about seven months ago, so my sire didn’t bother telling us since we were visiting so soon.”

Brendol took another look at the small gaggle of children. None looked even close to a toddler, all appearing to be around six standard years of age.

“Seven months old?”

“Cats grow fast,” says Sienna, letting her siblings disperse among the crowd again now that introductions were over. “My sire thinks that they are growing up too fast, but my dam wanted them to be cubs for a little bit. Probably because she had to give human birth to me.”

“Human birth.” He echoes. Sienna takes it as a sign to continue her explanation, mistaking the shock in his voice for confusion. Brendol could also feel the shift in the air as her entire family finally noticed that their two guests were no longer among them.

“Yeah, both of my parents decided that starting off with a litter was going to be difficult to deal with, so my dam had to carry me the human way.” She shrugs, nonchalant, leaving him far more confused than ever. “Now that I am out of the house they decided to have their first litter.”

“Litter.”

Sienna bares her teeth in amusement (he prides himself on finally figuring out what all of the minute facial posturing meant), “Yeah, my dam is a sire as well, just not mine. Same for my sire.”

Time to change that line of thought. He blurts out the first question that came to mind. “How is it that you manage to live out a normal lifespan? That is if you age faster as a cat.”

One of relatives took over, causing Brendol to realize how much of a crowd had built up during his short conversation with Sienna.

“That’s simple,” he says, swinging a thick arm around Brendol, “there isn’t much to do as a cat when you get older, so you rarely see adults spending a significant amount of time in the forest.”

He plasters on a pleasant smile, hoping that Sienna’s uncle — one of many — would not notice nor care that he is glancing towards the empty town. Sienna must have noticed his discomfort for she sweeps towards him like an avenging angel. He allows her to pull him away from the wildly gesturing man, who decided that he needed to hear more about the entertainments in this town. As they walk towards Sienna’s house a terrible thought struck him.

“Wait, how many standard years are you?”

She opens her mouth to reply, a devious look crossing her face. He holds up his hands and turns away, “Nevermind, forget I ever asked that question.”

He can’t live with the knowledge that his wife was a decade younger than him or something. Some things were better off unknown. In the lull of silence that follows, he could hear the hushed whispers of some onlookers, safely hidden away in their homes.

_“Look at him.”_

_“Look at his hair!”_

_“Don’t be stupid, look at how thin he is — and pale! He’s a gorgeous specimen isn’t he?”_

_“Utterly exotic, enchanting...”_

The gossiping voices fade as they gain distance. Sienna pulls him forwards, outright marching him deeper into her hometown. Brendol lets the silence stew for a while before he lets his displeasure burst out.

“Exotic?” he hisses to Sienna as she dragged him into her house (a pleasant low structure with a massive porch with an amazing view of the forest, hasn’t changed at all from the last time he visited).

“Sure.” She tilts her head, studying him with reflective eyes, “Haven’t you noticed...” She trails off gesturing to his entire body. He looks down. Nothing extremely unusual, except how he’s been getting a bit lax with training lately.

Sienna must have noticed his confusion as she goes on to prompt him, “I mean, you have real fine bones, making you a lot smaller than everyone else.”

He opens his mouth to retort that at six feet he was quite tall for a human. Sienna just raises her voice, drowning out any denials he could sputter forth.

“— And since you are so thin, the dip in between your ribs and your hips is deeper. And you’re sooo soft.”

The woven wicker chair held his weight quite well considering how hard he collapsed into them. Sienna snaps her fingers in front of his face, a concerned look crossing her face for once. “You alright?”

For the next few minutes the only sound he can make is a strangled gurgling.

“No,” he finally says, voice pitched higher than usual. 

Brendol ignores her snickers, as how else does someone deal with suddenly becoming the trophy husband? It wasn’t something he expected to happen to him. It was more likely for Sienna to end up as a trophy wife, but that point of his life when he realizes this fact hasn’t passed yet. 

“Hello dahling,” someone drawled behind him. He leapt out of the chair, crashing right into Sienna’s waiting arms. The constant sound of croaking insects was drowned out by a hearty laugh, low and deep. When he turned around he saw that it was Sienna’s dam.

“Hello,” he says, pausing to scan through his memories for her name. None come to mind. She just smiles at him before switching her attention to her eldest daughter. The two stand there, looking at each other for a good moment, allowing their differences to stand out. The two of them burst into conversation, and he can see exactly how the two of them were related. Their mannerisms were practically a mirror of one another’s.

The two of them were taller than him, allowing them to talk right over his head. For the first time, Brendol felt small, incredibly small. Sienna still hadn’t let him go, so he spent the next five minutes of their chatter to try to squirm out of her grip, to no success. Sienna didn’t even seem to be gripping that hard, effortlessly keeping him pinned to her.

Their excited chatter of catching each other up slows, allowing Sienna’s dam to look over Sienna once more. “It good to see you after such of a long silence,” she says. A beat of silence as the two women gazed at each other, unblinking. “And your mate.”

“Mmmhhrrnn, yes, that’s nice and all, but why did you call us back here?”

Brendol was mildly offended by this, as Sienna couldn’t stop the smugness oozing off of her the entire trip from Arkanis to Fora. Well, until the pirate attack happened. After that, Sienna started to swagger around the ship, which was worse than the subtle air of superiority from before.

“Your sire plans on retiring soon, and he wants you to take over the business. So you are here to pick up on the basics before he sends you off on your own.”

“Excuse me,” he interrupts, “the Wild Space Trading Guild is being passed on? Just like that?”

Sienna’s dam just gives him a long look at him, “Yes.”

The next three days pass as if he was taking a tropical vacation rather than staying on a monster infested planet, waiting for his wife to finish up her training. When he sees her with a pamphlet that says _How to Run for Lordship_ he resigns himself to seeing more of Fora unseen beauties. 

Sienna confirms his half-formed suspicions when they had boarded their ship back to Arkanis. He had been inspecting the radar when she broke the news to him, having kicked away the last worker. Not because of the past pirate raid, but rather because he would like to keep an eye on the space they are traveling through right now.

They had already made the jump to hyperspace before she said anything. 

“So,” Sienna says, her arms pinning his tightly against his sides, “it’s likely that when you hit retirement age we’ll just head back to Fora.”

He didn’t reply with anything beyond a glower, but in all honesty, he probably wouldn’t mind living on a tropical planet until he dies of old age, surrounded by cats.


End file.
